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When Brad Fittler met Kerry Packer in 1995 before joining the Roosters, the media tycoon asked him: “How do you think you win a grand final?”
was midway through 1995, smack bang in the middle of the Super League war at his office in the middle of the city. Phil Gould was coaching at the Roosters at this point and I was weighing up whether to join him at the club or link with Manly.
Kerry was selling the red, white and blue to me and asked me a question I often come back to more than three decades later.when I was just 19 and part of a crew of local juniors that included Greg Alexander, Mark Geyer, Brad Izzard and John Cartwright. Along with the born-and-bred westies, we had Steve Carter who had played juniors and went to school in the area after growing up on the Central Coast, winger Paul Smith came to us the same way and our club icon Royce Simmons from Gooloogong in country NSW.
“Kerry,” I said , “you’ve got to grow your premiership side from within. ”It’s interesting to think back over that conversation around both the way the Roosters have ebbed and flowed with their approach to juniors and development, and rugby league in general.
Siua Wong, Salesi Foketi , Rob Toia and Benaiah Ioelu have all come through that Academy, with plenty more first-graders on their way in the future. Billy Smith, Victor Radley and Hugo Savala are local juniors while the Butcher brothers jumped across Anzac Parade as teenagers.
Daniel Tupou, Sam Walker, Naufahu Whyte and Lindsay Collins are all representative stars who haven’t played at any other club, and Mark Nawaqanitawase was a calculated signing gamble from rugby where the Roosters have struck gold. , Reece Robson, Spencer Leniu and to a lesser extent, James Tedesco and Angus Crichton – they fit Kerry Packer’s bill of the marquee superstar.
And make no mistake, when Nick Politis sets his sights on a player he loves and wants, he will sign him.and right up the NSW North Coast is a great example of “bred not bought” philosophy that goes a lot further in modern rugby league. Penrith are the greatest example of all of course, their juniors are so prolific you can find their players right across the NRL.
The Roosters have had a reputation at different times as a transit lounge, and there’s been times when that’s been deserved, when the club has lost its way from the values it was built on. But when you think about the calibre of players that have left in the past few years – Joey Manu, Joseph Suaalii, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Luke Keary, Siosiua Taukeiaho, Sitili Tupouniua – and how they have replaced them, the club’s culture speaks for itself.
The Roosters foundations have endured since 1908 and ever since I walked through the club’s doors almost 90 years later, the mentality Phil Gould always drilled into us as players was that we had to be fittest players in the competition and its hardest workers. We always knew we lived in a glamorous, beautiful part of town. How could you not? Bondi Beach is the best place in the world to live.
But we knew that was an absolute privilege too, and it had to be balanced with hard work. Guys like Luke Ricketson and Anthony Minichiello, among so many others, they knew this and they lived it. That’s where the Roosters have found such a rich vein of success, and you can see it in the way Trent Robinson’s side plays too.
The Dolphins went with them in the grand final qualifier for 20 physical minutes before the Roosters’ physicality and defence prevailed. But this is where they can drive their fans up the wall too. Because they fly into tackles and contact, they can overdo things. Their enforcers can give away cheap penalties and give the opposition a chance.
At the same time, when I think about Kerry Packer’s question all those years ago – how do you win a grand final? – I do think of moments and motivation. And when a game is there to be won or lost in a single second or two, it’s funny how a grand final can swing. The most famous single moment from a decider that I played in was Scott Sattler’s immortal chase of Todd Byrne in 2003.
But a happier one for the Roosters and I, even if it left me seeing stars at the time, was when Warriors propWe held a narrow 12-8 lead at that point and the game was in the balance. Until Villasanti came hunting me and hit me in the head after I had a kick charged down. Peter Cusack belted him. Adrian Morley monstered him.
And within 10 minutes, the contest was over, final score, 30-8. Stand by for one of the great Australian sports stories‘Seriously bonkers’: Inside the Knights-mania sweeping Newcastle
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